Canadian Urban Institute

The Urban Leadership Awards (ULA) Program honours individuals, groups and organizations that have made significant contributions to improving the quality of life in Canada’s cities and urban regions.

The awards program is also a fundraiser for the Institute in support of our internship program, dedicated to providing undergraduate scholars with practical work experience.

The 9^th Annual Urban Leadership Awards Ceremony will take place on:

Friday, June 8, 2012 in Toronto, Ontario.
Location: Toronto Board of Trade, First Canadian Place

The nominations are now closed for 2012 - thank you to everyone who submitted a nomination this year!

The category award recipients have been selected! Download the media release here.

The winner of the 2012 David Crombie Award has been announced!  Download the media release here.

The winner of the 2012 Jane Jacobs Lifetime Achievement Award has been announced! Download the media release here.

For more information about this year's event, please visit the event page here.

From the 2011 awards:

PRESS RELEASE: Announcing the 2011 winner of the David Crombie award

PRESS RELEASE: Announcing the 2011 ULA Category Winners

PRESS RELEASE: Announcing the winner of the 2011 Jane Jacobs Award

To see the videos for the 2011 award recipients, please watch the CanurbOrg channel on Youtube!

From the 2010 awards:

PRESS RELEASE: Announcing the 2010 winner of the David Crombie award

PRESS RELEASE: Announcing the 2010 ULA Category Winners

PRESS RELEASE: Announcing the winner of the 2010 Jane Jacobs Award

To see videos profiling the 2010 award recipients, please go to the events page here.

ULA recipients define the very nature of "leadership" and can be organizations, groups or individuals who demonstrate a calling and a vision, tenacity, creativity, energy and drive.  These characteristics combined with the ability to engage others, are what distinguish ULA recipients from the mainstream. 

To choose the recipients, a jury is convened, comprised of distinguished Canadians from coast to coast.

The members of this year's jury are:

Rupen Seoni is Vice President and Practice Leader at Environics Analytics, and a member of the Board of the Canadian Urban Institute. As a consultant, Rupen has helped not-for-profits such as Pride Toronto and First Night measure the economic impact and marketing opportunity of community festivals. Trained as an urban planner at the University of Toronto, Rupen also serves on the Board of Community One Foundation.

 Dr. Catherine Chandler-Crichlow is the Executive Director of the Centre of Excellence for Financial Services Education of the Toronto Financial Services Alliance (TFSA). She has worked for major organizations in Canada and internationally, and has over 30 years talent development experience specializing in the areas of executive and leadership development; curriculum development and implementation; technology-mediated distance learning and program evaluation.

Helen Cooper, Former Mayor of Kingston and Head of the OMB; Manager, Ministry of Community and Social Serivces.

 Claudette Toupin is an Assistant Deputy Minister with the Department of Local Government Affairs in Manitoba. Trained in both social work and city planning, she has been responsible for a variety of key initiatives in the province, including a role as Director of Official Languages; Executive Director of Education and Training for the benefit of Employment Insured clients, persons on social assistance and low-income families; and ADM for Community Planning and Development.

John Kim Bell is a returning member of the ULA jury. He was the first person of Aboriginal heritage to become a symphony conductor. Today, he is an energy executive leading the Aboriginal Affairs effort for Brookfield Renewable Power. John Kim founded the Canadian Native Arts Foundation, the National Aboriginal Achievement Foundation, which he built into Canada's largest Aboriginal charity, and the National Aboriginal Achievement Awards. As an energy advocate for First Nations, he lobbied Ontario to establish the First Nations Loan Guaranty Program to enable First Nations to acquire equity participation in renewable energy projects.